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Food drive organized for teachers, support staff who lost jobs during Ypsilanti- Willow Run consolidation

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Ypsilanti foreign language teachers Barbara Martin, left, and Frances Heires seek solitude in the grass under the trees behind Ypsilanti High School on May 3, after opening their letters from the new district and learning they were guaranteed jobs.
(Daniel Brenner | The Ann Arbor News)

It's been nearly 90 days since the consolidation of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run school districts - and now educators are uniting on behalf of the teachers and support staff who did not receive job offers within the newly established district.

To help those with financial struggles, the Michigan Education Association has started a virtual food drive to help nearly 200 people, said Donnie Reeves, MEA Uniserv Director.

Updated numbers regarding how many teachers and support staff were laid off were not immediately available from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District's human resources department.

It was previously reported that the consolidated district offered jobs to 171 teachers. Prior to the consolidation, combined, the two districts had a total of 274 teachers.

Voters in November 2012 approved merging the struggling Ypsilanti Public Schools and Willow Run Community Schools into one district, which officially launched on July 1 and welcomed its first group of students on Sept. 3.

Scott Menzel, WISD Superintendent, said it's important to note that the numbers have been updated to include that some who were offered jobs and accepted, decided to resign and take a job elsewhere. Menzel said the district has also had some who weren't initially offered jobs end up being employed.

Naomi Norman, WISD Director of Achievement Initiatives, said in March that an employee assistance program would be put in place to help current employees who are not selected, to transition elsewhere. Norman said the employees would be given career counseling and social-emotional supports.

"We worked with the Michigan Works agency to create a team to do just that," Menzel said. "They worked all the way through the notification process to the end of the school year to provide support for staff who were laid off. Things related to updating the resume, looking for employment, navigating adjustment. We provided some counseling related to the stress with the dislocation."

Yet, some are still struggling, Reeves said.

"One person that's gone out of state is basically trying to uproot their family to another state, which has caused financial need, so they're trying to sell their home and find another place in the state where they found employment," Reeves said. "There are some people that have small children in their family... They're struggling right now."

"It's kind of gut-wrenching to see some people that have worked for 10, 15 years or more be without a job or employment and not know where their next meal is coming from," Reeves said. "We have had one-on-one conversations with members that did not get unemployment (benefits) or for some reason they’ve been rejected or are still going through this process since July."

Menzel said the district "absolutely wants the best" for all of the former employees.

"I think the challenge is we try to put this in perspective," Menzel said. "We knew that neither district was in a place where they would sustain all of their staff. It's always difficult when you have to reduce staff numbers."

Menzel said the district has been focused on its' students and ensuring that it creates an environment for them to succeed.

"It's not that we don't feel any sense of loss, it's just a matter our focus has been, how do we create a successful district," he said.

The MEA is gathering gift cards for Meijer and Kroger and food baskets to give to the former employees, and according to Reeves, "several" have been handed out so far and "hundreds of dollars" have been collected.

"Some people have started crying because they were so thankful to get the food," Reeves said. "We saw the need. Members are donating food and food cards so that people that do not have jobs as of this date or have any income coming in , this is our way of helping out members that are not employed at this point. This is the first time in my recollection that we've ever had a food bank."